New HDD but very slow

[Art Vandelay]

Go the new drive

Same problems with this drive as with the other one. I think it is a software mother board situation. Would a RAID setup solve this problem? What I have now is a system drive of 300 GB and a new drive af 750 GB both are SATA the system drive is SATA1 and the new drive is SATA2 so it has the jumper pin on 5,6 so it is scaled back to match my other drive and mother board at a speed of 150 not 300 for my SATA's. Bios is up to date and both drives are DMA enabled.

[dr_ml422]

Well now you eliminated the HDD, which I doubted from the beginning. I don't think you need a Raid setup. I think your mobo can handle a Sata II. They're backwards compatible I think. Make sure you have the primary OS HDD in the 1st sata port on your mobo. Then make sure you have the 2nd new one in the 2nd sata port. If you're using Sata burners put them in the remaining sata ports or IDe setup as master/slave w/e you have. Don't hookup both HDD's to the same power cable via a connector. Try to have separate power cables for each. Can your mobo handle another hdd in the board? Like I suggested sometimes you might get issues w/another hdd connected inside and so they suggest to use it as a external hdd. A docking station would come in handy here.

I don't think it's software related as I've had different drives from different makers in my Dell MCE 2005 w/out issues. It wouldn't hurt to call the people up who make either the HDD or your PC if you can w/out any cost to let them at least tell you something.

I would try it on a usb drive 1st though, or simply switch the new 1 for the one in your mobo by cloning the old drive if you can. Then you can PNP it and see if there really is a mobo issue.

Art ttytt don't get too nuts w/this. When it comes to computers sometimes it doesn't pay up to a point to keep trying to figure it out. I'm going through a slight obstacle w/some software ata different setting and now that I' look back it's a grain of sand in this whole beach of ours.

[Art Vandelay]

system drive is on SATA 1 and the new drive is on SATA 2. Both DVD's are IDE not SATA drives.

Looks like I only have 1 SATA power plug in, and it is the only form of power it will take.

I have 4 SATA plugins, 1 with the system drive, 2nd one with the new HDD.

[dr_ml422]

system drive is on SATA 1 and the new drive is on SATA 2. Both DVD's are IDE not SATA drives.

Looks like I only have 1 SATA power plug in, and it is the only form of power it will take.

I have 4 SATA plugins, 1 with the system drive, 2nd one with the new HDD.

Only 1 sata power plug from the PSU? What do you mean by 4 SATA plugins? You mean 4 ports on the mobo? Have you tried the OS HDD in the other SATA port by itself see if there's any issues? Also just make sure that you have them numbered correctly. I made a mistake like that a while back on my 1st build and when I checked the specs I only had to switch ports on the mobo.

Also go in BIOS and make sure that the OS drive is recognized in that 1st port and that the new HDD is recognized in the 2nd. You might have to manually set that even though it's PNP just to make sure.

If you just have 1 SATA power plug from the PSU then you'll need a splitter for both, but I wouldn't recommend that. Check out the previous things 1st and then at worst you can get a 4 pin molex connector for both drives and a 4pin molex to SATA power connector for the new one. That way you know you definitely have good juice for all just in case.

At this point though I don't think it's the HDD. Only way to find out is to switch all files including OS on new HDD and PNP it.

Does it turn on at all though? What's it doing now anyway?

[Art Vandelay]

2 molex SATA power plugins but they look to be on the same group of wires.

4 SATA plugins on the mo board.

I have pluged in the molex power and cable into the system drive and it works fine.

System drive is # 5 in BIOS and new drive is # 6, the PC has all those card readers on the front and each one is a drive.

I have many power plugins open in the case but only 2 molex ones. May need to see if I can get an adapter so I can plug the molex devise into a power cable that isn't shared with the system drive.

The computer is working fine other than when I try and transfer files to the new drive. When I use ImgBurn to build a ISO with the system drive as source and the new derive as destination it starts out fine 30X 28X 33X then it gets to about 50% done and it starts to slow down, 20X 12X, 6X all the way to 0X. This is when I stop the build in ImgBurn or the compter freezes.

[dr_ml422]

Ok. Then we're getting somewhere now. Put system drive in sata 1 slot and new hdd in sata 2 slot. The rest of those card readers or w/e they are put in the xtra sata ports. This makes a difference. You might need to get that 4 pin molex to sata connector so you could give the other hdd it's own power line.

You have enough poweer in that PSU for all those card readers you say are drives + the other drives? Also post this ImgBurn issue in Lightning UK's Forum at www.imgburn.com. He'll ususally respond really quick w/a possible solution to either the hdd or anything else. You could post the log of those burns/builds in the ImgBurn Forum so he can troubleshoot even faster.

Remember molex is molex and sata is sata. 4pin molex for ide, and sata power cables for sata. when you get the adapter make sure you get the one that has the orange cable as well so you'll get all the wattage available.

Go here: www.monoprice.com. look for 4 pin molex power to 2 sata power connector. Really great prices including shipping, and quality stuff.

[Art Vandelay]

SATA 1 has the source drive, SATA 2 has the new drive and the other 2 SATA ports on the m board are empty, the card readers are linking to the mo bard some other way. I have my power terms mixed up, 1 SATA power plug is going to the source and the 2nd SATA power plug is going to the new drive but look to be linked together.

You have enough poweer in that PSU for all those card readers you say are drives + the other drives? Also post this ImgBurn issue in Lightning UK's Forum at www.imgburn.com. He'll ususally respond really quick w/a possible solution to either the hdd or anything else. You could post the log of those burns/builds in the ImgBurn Forum so he can troubleshoot even faster.

Can't post a log, buffer fills up to 100% then drops up,down,up, down from 100% to 45% then when the build gets to about 50% done it freezes up my PC as the speed declines to 0X but it started out at 32X and then declines.

Remember molex is molex and sata is sata. 4pin molex for ide, and sata power cables for sata. when you get the adapter make sure you get the one that has the orange cable as well so you'll get all the wattage available.

The cable I am using for the new drive I got from Newegg and it is a

ROSEWILL 18" SATAII CABLE BLK


my source drive has a orange SATA data cable, do the colors signify a diference? The new drive has a black cable?


Go here: www.monoprice.com. look for 4 pin molex power to 2 sata power connector. Really great prices including shipping, and quality stuff.[/QUOTE]

[dr_ml422]

I mean the power plugs from the PSu, not the Data cables. the data SATA cables can be w/e color. The power cables usually come standard w/black, yellow, orange, etc... I thought you needed a extra Sata power cable, which you actually do in the way as the split sata power cable is connected to both HDd. Now you can go 1 of 2 ways. Get a SATA to 2 4pin molex power cable adapter to hook up your burner/burners as they take up less juice. If you have separate 4 pin power molex cables then you can get 2 separate 4 pin molex power to Sata power cables and hook up the hdd separately. Or vice versa.

You can still post a log. Just go to settings in ImgBurn and look up the log and it'll show the Buffer data going crazy. Lightning will automatically know what's going on.

Art have you defragged your main drive in a while? If it's heavily defragmented it will cause buffer issues and burning issues. Make sure it's defragmented as best you can. Use defraggler from Piriform. Same people as Ccleaner if windows has trouble defragging because of space.

What kind of card readers are you talking about? I'm lost on that. Can you explain a lil better? Thnx. It just might be a power issue, or just simply the defrag. 1 step at a time.

[Art Vandelay]

Posted a log in ImgBurn forum, but it worked OK the transfer was fine from system drive C to destination drive M. Haven't herd from Lightning, what I mean by card readers are the type that go in digital cameras, I have SD disk, compact flash, memory stick slots on the front of my PC case. These all show up with my 2 IDE DVD drives under "Devices with removable storage" in My Computer.

I checked the framentation and it was a problem I had the 300 GB drive 50% full and it was 52% fragmented. I kept running the program till is said drive doesn't need defragmenting. I believe this did help the situation, as I used ImgBurn to build 3 ISO files and it workwed fine. I still have stability issues, freezing up for a bit. I downloaded mother board driver update from Nvidia but when I run it I get to the point where it restarts after removing the present drivers and says that Nvidia setup has detected a MS harware wizzard running and it needs to be closed before Nvidia can continue. If I have a MS hardware wizzard running I don't know of it. I can't update the motherbaord drivers which I think may solve the problems. I searched on the net but haven't found a working solution to the Nvidia setup problem. One thing said restart in safemode but the PC jsut kept cycling through the sceeen asking safemode, safemode with networking, and the 3rd option. I had to reinstall my operating system but the recovery partion wouldn't agree so I had to use the 3 back up DVD's I made when I bought the computer. 2 Days later most of the software is back in the PC and XP is up to date. Then I had the joy of Itunes with a PC that doesn't have the music in it anymore, as the CD's are in the closet since the music is now played from the PC. I need a drink!!

[dr_ml422]

Art you did good. There is a fix for the Nvidia setup wizard. It's on Nvidia's site. I had to do it on my MCE XP Dell. Look for it. It'll be there. I think the fix is that when you get to the point where it says would you like to install the Nvidia drivers you say no or cancel, something like that. I'll try and get the link for you.

Don't worry I've been there done that. Wait until you get to MeGUI and H.264 conversion. Lol... I'll post back as soon as I get the fix, and also try to never have your main drive more than 30% or 40% full as it will be difficult to fragment. Defraggler is great freeware so that should work in the future.

I had to have a few drinks last night for some other nonsense. It's all good.

Try this 1st: http://forums.tweakguides.com/showthread.php?t=1762

Also what's your mobo so I can look up the driver issue? Uninstall any USB devices before installing drivers and fully uninstall old drivers via control panel or device manager and run Ccleaner to get rid of any old files left. Go to regedit and do a search for nvidia and also get rid of anything associated w/your mobo. Then manually do a serach in explorer and find and delete any folders/files left behind. Usually in the users/app. data etc.. my documents.

Also this; http://nvidia.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/n...i=&p_topview=1

Think solution was to cancel out of wizards and then manually run setup. Good Luck.

[Art Vandelay]

Update problem fixed

@ dr_ml422

Thanks for all the help; I am annoyed to say that my problem was a badly fragmented source drive. I guess it is the simple solution solves the problem.

now the Nvidia situation, PC is working fine though.


Sorry for the delay

[dr_ml422]

The Nvidia situation I had as well b4. I can't fully recall the solution. I do know that you have to either cancel or say no when it asks you about installation and then either restart and/or manually run the rest of the setup. Call Nvidia or if choosing the right words to Google it will come up. Let me know if it's that pesty double installation wizard thing that's the culprit.

[dr_ml422]

Art I looked around and found this which is similar to what I did in my situation. Nvidia posted something like this on their site. It was hard to find again.

This should help: http://www.mysuperpc.com/vcu/windows...d_driver.shtml

If not do this which since you won't be installing drivers all the time might be ok.

http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic89154.html

Post back w/any results when you can. Let us know how you made out.